Day 63 of 90

¹When I would heal Israel, then the iniquity of Ephraim is uncovered, also the wickedness of Samaria; for they commit falsehood, and the thief enters in, and the gang of robbers ravages outside.

²They do not consider in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness. Now their own deeds have engulfed them. They are before my face.

³They make the king glad with their wickedness, and the princes with their lies.

⁴They are all adulterers. They are burning like an oven that the baker stops stirring, from the kneading of the dough, until it is leavened.

⁵On the day of our king, the princes made themselves sick with the heat of wine. He joined his hand with mockers.

⁶For they have made ready their heart like an oven, while they lie in wait. Their baker sleeps all the night. In the morning it burns as a flaming fire.

⁷They are all hot as an oven, and devour their judges. All their kings have fallen. There is no one among them who calls to me.

⁸Ephraim, he mixes himself among the nations. Ephraim is a pancake not turned over.

⁹Strangers have devoured his strength, and he doesn't realize it. Indeed, gray hairs are here and there on him, and he doesn't realize it.

¹⁰The pride of Israel testifies to his face; yet they haven't returned to the Lord their God, nor sought him, for all this.

¹¹"Ephraim is like an easily deceived dove, without understanding. They call to Egypt. They go to Assyria.

¹²When they go, I will spread my net on them. I will bring them down like the birds of the sky. I will chastise them, as their congregation has heard.

¹³Woe to them! For they have wandered from me. Destruction to them! For they have trespassed against me. Though I would redeem them, yet they have spoken lies against me.

¹⁴They haven't cried to me with their heart, but they howl on their beds. They assemble themselves for grain and new wine. They turn away from me.

¹⁵Though I have taught and strengthened their arms, yet they plot evil against me.

¹⁶They return, but not to the Most High. They are like a faulty bow. Their princes will fall by the sword for the rage of their tongue. This will be their derision in the land of Egypt.

¹"Put the trumpet to your lips! Something like an eagle is over the Lord's house, because they have broken my covenant, and rebelled against my law.

²They cry to me, 'My God, we Israel acknowledge you!'

³Israel has cast off that which is good. The enemy will pursue him.

⁴They have set up kings, but not by me. They have made princes, and I did not approve. Of their silver and their gold they have made themselves idols, that they may be cut off.

⁵Let Samaria throw out his calf idol! My anger burns against them! How long will it be until they are capable of purity?

⁶For this is even from Israel! The workman made it, and it is no God; indeed, the calf of Samaria shall be broken in pieces.

⁷For they sow the wind, and they will reap the whirlwind. He has no standing grain. The stalk will yield no head. If it does yield, strangers will swallow it up.

⁸Israel is swallowed up. Now they are among the nations like a worthless thing.

⁹For they have gone up to Assyria, like a wild donkey wandering alone. Ephraim has hired lovers for himself.

¹⁰But although they sold themselves among the nations, I will now gather them; and they begin to waste away because of the oppression of the king of mighty ones.

¹¹Because Ephraim has multiplied altars for sinning, they became for him altars for sinning.

¹²I wrote for him the many things of my law; but they were regarded as a strange thing.

¹³As for the sacrifices of my offerings, they sacrifice flesh and eat it; But the Lord doesn't accept them. Now he will remember their iniquity, and punish their sins. They will return to Egypt.

¹⁴For Israel has forgotten his Maker and built palaces; and Judah has multiplied fortified cities; but I will send a fire on his cities, and it will devour its fortresses."

¹Do not rejoice, Israel, to jubilation like the nations; for you were unfaithful to your God. You love the wages of a prostitute at every grain threshing floor.

²The threshing floor and the winepress won't feed them, and the new wine will fail her.

³They won't dwell in the Lord's land; but Ephraim will return to Egypt, and they will eat unclean food in Assyria.

⁴They won't pour out wine offerings to the Lord, neither will they be pleasing to him. Their sacrifices will be to them like the bread of mourners; all who eat of it will be polluted; for their bread will be for their appetite. It will not come into the house of the Lord.

⁵What will you do in the day of solemn assembly, and in the day of the feast of the Lord?

⁶For, behold, they have gone away from destruction. Egypt will gather them up. Memphis will bury them. Nettles will possess their pleasant things of silver. Thorns will be in their tents.

⁷The days of visitation have come. The days of reckoning have come. Israel will consider the prophet to be a fool, and the man who is inspired to be insane, because of the abundance of your sins, and because your hostility is great.

⁸A prophet watches over Ephraim with my God. A fowler's snare is on all of his paths, and hostility in the house of his God.

⁹They have deeply corrupted themselves, as in the days of Gibeah. He will remember their iniquity. He will punish them for their sins.

¹⁰I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness. I saw your fathers as the first ripe in the fig tree at its first season; but they came to Baal Peor, and consecrated themselves to the shameful thing, and became abominable like that which they loved.

¹¹As for Ephraim, their glory will fly away like a bird. There will be no birth, none with child, and no conception.

¹²Though they bring up their children, yet I will bereave them, so that not a man shall be left. Indeed, woe also to them when I depart from them!

¹³I have seen Ephraim, like Tyre, planted in a pleasant place; but Ephraim will bring out his children to the murderer.

¹⁴Give them-Lord what will you give? Give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts.

¹⁵"All their wickedness is in Gilgal; for there I hated them. Because of the wickedness of their deeds I will drive them out of my house! I will love them no more. All their princes are rebels.

¹⁶Ephraim is struck. Their root has dried up. They will bear no fruit. Even though they bring forth, yet I will kill the beloved ones of their womb."

¹⁷My God will cast them away, because they did not listen to him; and they will be wanderers among the nations.

¹Israel is a luxuriant vine that puts forth his fruit. According to the abundance of his fruit he has multiplied his altars. As their land has prospered, they have adorned their sacred stones.

²Their heart is divided. Now they will be found guilty. He will demolish their altars. He will destroy their sacred stones.

³Surely now they will say, "We have no king; for we do not fear the Lord; and the king, what can he do for us?"

⁴They make promises, swearing falsely in making covenants. Therefore judgment springs up like poisonous weeds in the furrows of the field.

⁵The inhabitants of Samaria will be in terror for the calves of Beth Aven; for its people will mourn over it, Along with its priests who rejoiced over it, for its glory, because it has departed from it.

⁶It also will be carried to Assyria for a present to a great king. Ephraim will receive shame, and Israel will be ashamed of his own counsel.

⁷Samaria and her king float away, like a twig on the water.

⁸The high places also of Aven, the sin of Israel, will be destroyed. The thorn and the thistle will come up on their altars. They will tell the mountains, "Cover us!" and the hills, "Fall on us!"

⁹"Israel, you have sinned from the days of Gibeah. There they remained. The battle against the children of iniquity doesn't overtake them in Gibeah.

¹⁰When it is my desire, I will chastise them; and the nations will be gathered against them, when they are bound to their two transgressions.

¹¹Ephraim is a trained heifer that loves to thresh; so I will put a yoke on her beautiful neck. I will set a rider on Ephraim. Judah will plow. Jacob will break his clods.

¹²Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap according to kindness. Break up your fallow ground; for it is time to seek the Lord, until he comes and rains righteousness on you.

¹³You have plowed wickedness. You have reaped iniquity. You have eaten the fruit of lies, for you trusted in your way, in the multitude of your mighty men.

¹⁴Therefore a battle roar will arise among your people, and all your fortresses will be destroyed, as Shalman destroyed Beth Arbel in the day of battle. The mother was dashed in pieces with her children.

¹⁵So Bethel will do to you because of your great wickedness. At daybreak the king of Israel will be destroyed.

¹"When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.

²They called to them, so they went from them. They sacrificed to the Baals, and burned incense to engraved images.

³Yet I taught Ephraim to walk. I took them by his arms; but they did not know that I healed them.

⁴I drew them with cords of a man, with ties of love; and I was to them like those who lift up the yoke on their necks; and I bent down to him and I fed him.

⁵"They won't return into the land of Egypt; but the Assyrian will be their king, because they refused to repent.

⁶The sword will fall on their cities, and will destroy the bars of their gates, and will put an end to their plans.

⁷My people are determined to turn from me. Though they call to the Most High, he certainly won't exalt them.

⁸"How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I make you like Zeboiim? My heart is turned within me, my compassion is aroused.

⁹I will not execute the fierceness of my anger. I will not return to destroy Ephraim: for I am God, and not man; the Holy One in the midst of you; and I will not come in wrath.

¹⁰They will walk after the Lord, who will roar like a lion; for he will roar, and the children will come trembling from the west.

¹¹They will come trembling like a bird out of Egypt, and like a dove out of the land of Assyria; and I will settle them in their houses," says the Lord.

¹²Ephraim surrounds me with falsehood, and the house of Israel with deceit. Judah still strays from God, and is unfaithful to the Holy One.

¹Ephraim feeds on wind, and chases the east wind. He continually multiplies lies and desolation. They make a covenant with Assyria, and oil is carried into Egypt.

²The Lord also has a controversy with Judah, and will punish Jacob according to his ways; according to his deeds he will repay him.

³In the womb he took his brother by the heel; and in his manhood he contended with God.

⁴Indeed, he struggled with the angel, and prevailed; he wept, and made supplication to him. He found him at Bethel, and there he spoke with us,

⁵even the Lord, the God of Hosts; The Lord is his name of renown!

⁶Therefore turn to your God. Keep kindness and justice, and wait continually for your God.

⁷A merchant has dishonest scales in his hand. He loves to defraud.

⁸Ephraim said, "Surely I have become rich, I have found myself wealth. In all my wealth they won't find in me any iniquity that is sin."

⁹"But I am the Lord your God from the land of Egypt. I will yet again make you dwell in tents, as in the days of the solemn feast.

¹⁰I have also spoken to the prophets, and I have multiplied visions; and by the ministry of the prophets I have used parables.

¹¹If Gilead is wicked, surely they are worthless. In Gilgal they sacrifice bulls. Indeed, their altars are like heaps in the furrows of the field.

¹²Jacob fled into the country of Aram, and Israel served to get a wife, and for a wife he tended flocks and herds.

¹³By a prophet the Lord brought Israel up out of Egypt, and by a prophet he was preserved.

¹⁴Ephraim has bitterly provoked anger. Therefore his blood will be left on him, and his Lord will repay his contempt.

¹When Ephraim spoke, there was trembling. He exalted himself in Israel, but when he became guilty in Baal, he died.

²Now they sin more and more, and have made themselves molten images of their silver, even idols according to their own understanding, all of them the work of the craftsmen. They say of them, 'They offer human sacrifice and kiss the calves.'

³Therefore they will be like the morning mist, and like the dew that passes away early, like the chaff that is driven with the whirlwind out of the threshing floor, and like the smoke out of the chimney.

⁴"Yet I am the Lord your God [that establishes the heaven, and creates the earth, whose hands have framed the whole host of heaven. But I did not show them to you that you should go after them, but I brought you up] from the land of Egypt; and you shall acknowledge no god but me, and besides me there is no savior.

⁵I knew you in the wilderness, in the land of great drought.

⁶According to their pasture, so were they filled; they were filled, and their heart was exalted. Therefore they have forgotten me.

⁷Therefore I am like a lion to them. Like a leopard, I will lurk by the path.

⁸I will meet them like a bear that is bereaved of her cubs, and will tear the covering of their heart. There I will devour them like a lioness. The wild animal will tear them.

⁹You are destroyed, Israel, because you are against me, against your help.

¹⁰Where is your king now, that he may save you in all your cities? And your judges, of whom you said, 'Give me a king and princes?'

¹¹I have given you a king in my anger, and have taken him away in my wrath.

¹²The guilt of Ephraim is stored up. His sin is stored up.

¹³The sorrows of a travailing woman will come on him. He is an unwise son; for when it is time, he doesn't come to the opening of the womb.

¹⁴I will ransom them from the power of Sheol. I will redeem them from death! Death, where are your plagues? Sheol, where is your sting? "Compassion will be hidden from my eyes.

¹⁵Though he is fruitful among his brothers, an east wind will come, the breath of the Lord coming up from the wilderness; and his spring will become dry, and his fountain will be dried up. He will plunder the storehouse of treasure.

¹⁶Samaria will bear her guilt; for she has rebelled against her God. They will fall by the sword. Their infants will be dashed in pieces, and their pregnant women will be ripped open."

¹Israel, return to the Lord your God; for you have fallen because of your sin.

²Take words with you, and return to the Lord. Tell him, "Forgive all our sins, and accept that which is good: so we offer our lips like bulls.

³Assyria can't save us. We won't ride on horses; neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, 'Our gods!' for in you the fatherless finds mercy."

⁴"I will heal their waywardness. I will love them freely; for my anger is turned away from him.

⁵I will be like the dew to Israel. He will blossom like the lily, and send down his roots like Lebanon.

⁶His branches will spread, and his beauty will be like the olive tree, and his fragrance like Lebanon.

⁷Men will dwell in his shade. They will revive like the grain, and blossom like the vine. Their fragrance will be like the wine of Lebanon.

⁸Ephraim, what have I to do any more with idols? I answer, and will take care of him. I am like a green fir tree; from me your fruit is found."

⁹Who is wise, that he may understand these things? Who is prudent, that he may know them? For the ways of the Lord are right, and the righteous walk in them; But the rebellious stumble in them.

¹The Word of the Lord that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel.

²Hear this, you elders, And listen, all you inhabitants of the land. Has this ever happened in your days, or in the days of your fathers?

³Tell your children about it, and have your children tell their children, and their children, another generation.

⁴What the swarming locust has left, the great locust has eaten. What the great locust has left, the grasshopper has eaten. What the grasshopper has left, the caterpillar has eaten.

⁵Wake up, you drunkards, and weep! Wail, all you drinkers of wine, because of the sweet wine; for it is cut off from your mouth.

⁶For a nation has come up on my land, strong, and without number. His teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he has the fangs of a lioness.

⁷He has laid my vine waste, and stripped my fig tree. He has stripped its bark, and thrown it away. Its branches are made white.

⁸Mourn like a virgin dressed in sackcloth for the husband of her youth!

⁹The meal offering and the drink offering are cut off from the Lord's house. The priests, the Lord's ministers, mourn.

¹⁰The field is laid waste. The land mourns, for the grain is destroyed, The new wine has dried up, and the oil languishes.

¹¹Be confounded, you farmers! Wail, you vineyard keepers; for the wheat and for the barley; for the harvest of the field has perished.

¹²The vine has dried up, and the fig tree withered; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all of the trees of the field are withered; for joy has withered away from the sons of men.

¹³Put on sackcloth and mourn, you priests! Wail, you ministers of the altar. Come, lie all night in sackcloth, you ministers of my God, for the meal offering and the drink offering are withheld from your God's house.

¹⁴Sanctify a fast. Call a solemn assembly. Gather the elders, and all the inhabitants of the land, to the house of the Lord, your God, and cry to the Lord.

¹⁵Alas for the day! For the day of the Lord is at hand, and it will come as destruction from the Almighty.

¹⁶Isn't the food cut off before our eyes; joy and gladness from the house of our God?

¹⁷The seeds rot under their clods. The granaries are laid desolate. The barns are broken down, for the grain has withered.

¹⁸How the animals groan! The herds of livestock are perplexed, because they have no pasture. Yes, the flocks of sheep are made desolate.

¹⁹The Lord, I cry to you, For the fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame has burned all the trees of the field.

²⁰Yes, the animals of the field pant to you, for the water brooks have dried up, And the fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness.

¹Blow the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord comes, for it is close at hand:

²A day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness. As the dawn spreading on the mountains, a great and strong people; there has never been the like, neither will there be any more after them, even to the years of many generations.

³A fire devours before them, and behind them, a flame burns. The land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them, a desolate wilderness. Yes, and no one has escaped them.

⁴The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses, and as horsemen, so do they run.

⁵Like the noise of chariots on the tops of the mountains do they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devours the stubble, as a strong people set in battle array.

⁶At their presence the peoples are in anguish. All faces have grown pale.

⁷They run like mighty men. They climb the wall like warriors. They each march in his line, and they do not swerve off course.

⁸Neither does one jostle another; they march everyone in his path, and they burst through the defenses, and do not break ranks.

⁹They rush on the city. They run on the wall. They climb up into the houses. They enter in at the windows like thieves.

¹⁰The earth quakes before them. The heavens tremble. The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining.

¹¹The Lord thunders his voice before his army; for his forces are very great; for he is strong who obeys his command; for the day of the Lord is great and very awesome, and who can endure it?

¹²"Yet even now," says the Lord, "turn to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning."

¹³Tear your heart, and not your garments, and turn to the Lord, your God; for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, and relents from sending calamity.

¹⁴Who knows? He may turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him, even a meal offering and a drink offering to the Lord, your God.

¹⁵Blow the trumpet in Zion! Sanctify a fast. Call a solemn assembly.

¹⁶Gather the people. Sanctify the assembly. Assemble the elders. Gather the children, and those who suck the breasts. Let the bridegroom go forth from his room, and the bride out of her chamber.

¹⁷Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, "Spare your people, Lord, and do not give your heritage to reproach, that the nations should rule over them. Why should they say among the peoples, 'Where is their God?'"

¹⁸Then the Lord was jealous for his land, And had pity on his people.

¹⁹The Lord answered his people, "Behold, I will send you grain, new wine, and oil, and you will be satisfied with them; and I will no more make you a reproach among the nations.

²⁰But I will remove the northern army far away from you, and will drive it into a barren and desolate land, its front into the eastern sea, and its back into the western sea; and its stench will come up, and its bad smell will rise." Surely he has done great things.

²¹Land, do not be afraid. Be glad and rejoice, for the Lord has done great things.

²²Do not be afraid, you animals of the field; for the pastures of the wilderness spring up, for the tree bears its fruit. The fig tree and the vine yield their strength.

²³"Be glad then, you children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord, your God; for he gives you the former rain in just measure, and he causes the rain to come down for you, the former rain and the latter rain, as before.

²⁴The threshing floors will be full of wheat, and the vats will overflow with new wine and oil.

²⁵I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the great locust, the grasshopper, and the caterpillar, my great army, which I sent among you.

²⁶You will have plenty to eat, and be satisfied, and will praise the name of the Lord, your God, who has dealt wondrously with you; and my people will never again be disappointed.

²⁷You will know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the Lord, your God, and there is no one else; and my people will never again be disappointed.

²⁸"It will happen afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; and your sons and your daughters will prophesy. Your old men will dream dreams. Your young men will see visions.

²⁹And also on the servants and on the handmaids in those days, I will pour out my Spirit.

³⁰I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth: blood, fire, and pillars of smoke.

³¹The sun will be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes.

³²It will happen that whoever will call on the name of the Lord shall be saved; for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be those who escape, as the Lord has said, and among the remnant, those whom the Lord calls.

¹"For, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem,

²I will gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat; and I will execute judgment on them there for my people, and for my heritage, Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations. They have divided my land,

³and have cast lots for my people, and have given a boy for a prostitute, and sold a girl for wine, that they may drink.

⁴"Yes, and what are you to me, Tyre, and Sidon, and all the regions of Philistia? Will you repay me? And if you repay me, I will swiftly and speedily return your repayment on your own head.

⁵Because you have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried my finest treasures into your temples,

⁶and have sold the children of Judah and the children of Jerusalem to the sons of the Greeks, that you may remove them far from their border.

⁷Behold, I will stir them up out of the place where you have sold them, and will return your repayment on your own head;

⁸and I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hands of the children of Judah, and they will sell them to the men of Sheba, to a faraway nation, for the Lord has spoken it."

⁹Proclaim this among the nations: "Prepare for war! Stir up the mighty men. Let all the warriors draw near. Let them come up.

¹⁰Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears. Let the weak say, 'I am strong.'

¹¹Hurry and come, all you surrounding nations, and gather yourselves together." Cause your mighty ones to come down there, Lord.

¹²"Let the nations arouse themselves, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat; for there will I sit to judge all the surrounding nations.

¹³Put in the sickle; for the harvest is ripe. Come, tread, for the winepress is full, the vats overflow, for their wickedness is great."

¹⁴Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the Lord is near, in the valley of decision.

¹⁵The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining.

¹⁶The Lord will roar from Zion, and thunder from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth will shake; but the Lord will be a refuge to his people, and a stronghold to the children of Israel.

¹⁷"So you will know that I am the Lord, your God, dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain. Then Jerusalem will be holy, and no strangers will pass through her any more.

¹⁸It will happen in that day, that the mountains will drop down sweet wine, the hills will flow with milk, all the brooks of Judah will flow with waters, and a fountain will come forth from the house of the Lord, and will water the valley of Shittim.

¹⁹Egypt will be a desolation, and Edom will be a desolate wilderness, for the violence done to the children of Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in their land.

²⁰But Judah will be inhabited forever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation.

²¹I will cleanse their blood, that I have not cleansed: for the Lord dwells in Zion."

¹The words of Amos, who was among the herdsmen of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel, two years before the earthquake.

²He said: "The Lord will roar from Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the pastures of the shepherds will mourn, and the top of Carmel will wither."

³Thus says the Lord: "For three transgressions of Damascus, yes, for four, I will not turn away its punishment; because they have threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron;

⁴but I will send a fire into the house of Hazael, and it will devour the palaces of Ben Hadad.

⁵I will break the bar of Damascus, and cut off the inhabitant from the valley of Aven, and him who holds the scepter from the house of Eden; and the people of Syria shall go into captivity to Kir," says the Lord.

⁶Thus says the Lord: "For three transgressions of Gaza, yes, for four, I will not turn away its punishment; because they carried away captive the whole community, to deliver them up to Edom;

⁷but I will send a fire on the wall of Gaza, and it will devour its palaces.

⁸I will cut off the inhabitant from Ashdod, and him who holds the scepter from Ashkelon; and I will turn my hand against Ekron; and the remnant of the Philistines will perish," says the Lord God.

⁹Thus says the Lord: "For three transgressions of Tyre, yes, for four, I will not turn away its punishment; because they delivered up the whole community to Edom, and did not remember the brotherly covenant;

¹⁰but I will send a fire on the wall of Tyre, and it will devour its palaces."

¹¹Thus says the Lord: "For three transgressions of Edom, yes, for four, I will not turn away its punishment; because he pursued his brother with the sword, and cast off all pity, and his anger raged continually, and he kept his wrath forever;

¹²but I will send a fire on Teman, and it will devour the palaces of Bozrah."

¹³Thus says the Lord: "For three transgressions of the children of Ammon, yes, for four, I will not turn away its punishment; because they have ripped open the pregnant women of Gilead, that they may enlarge their border.

¹⁴But I will kindle a fire in the wall of Rabbah, and it will devour its palaces, with shouting in the day of battle, with a storm in the day of the whirlwind;

¹⁵and their king will go into captivity, he and his princes together," says the Lord.

¹Thus says the Lord: "For three transgressions of Moab, yes, for four, I will not turn away its punishment; because he burned the bones of the king of Edom into lime;

²but I will send a fire on Moab, and it will devour the palaces of Kerioth; and Moab will die with tumult, with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet;

³and I will cut off the judge from their midst, and will kill all its princes with him," says the Lord.

⁴Thus says the Lord: "For three transgressions of Judah, yes, for four, I will not turn away its punishment; because they have rejected the Lord's law, and have not kept his statutes, and their lies have led them astray, after which their fathers walked;

⁵But I will send a fire on Judah, and it will devour the palaces of Jerusalem."

⁶Thus says the Lord: "For three transgressions of Israel, yes, for four, I will not turn away its punishment; because they have sold the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes;

⁷They trample on the dust of the earth on the head of the poor, and deny justice to the oppressed; and a man and his father use the same maiden, to profane my holy name;

⁸and they lay themselves down beside every altar on clothes taken in pledge; and in the house of their God they drink the wine of those who have been fined.

⁹Yet I destroyed the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars, and he was strong as the oaks; yet I destroyed his fruit from above, and his roots from beneath.

¹⁰Also I brought you up out of the land of Egypt, and led you forty years in the wilderness, to possess the land of the Amorite.

¹¹I raised up some of your sons for prophets, and some of your young men for Nazirites. Isn't this true, you children of Israel?" says the Lord.

¹²"But you gave the Nazirites wine to drink, and commanded the prophets, saying, 'Do not prophesy!'

¹³Behold, I will crush you in your place, as a cart crushes that is full of grain.

¹⁴Flight will perish from the swift; and the strong won't strengthen his force; neither shall the mighty deliver himself;

¹⁵neither shall he stand who handles the bow; and he who is swift of foot won't escape; neither shall he who rides the horse deliver himself;

¹⁶and he who is courageous among the mighty will flee away naked on that day," says the Lord.

¹Hear this word that the Lord has spoken against you, children of Israel, against the whole family which I brought up out of the land of Egypt, saying:

²"You only have I chosen of all the families of the earth. Therefore I will punish you for all of your sins."

³Do two walk together, unless they have agreed?

⁴Will a lion roar in the thicket, when he has no prey? Does a young lion cry out of his den, if he has caught nothing?

⁵Can a bird fall in a trap on the earth, where no snare is set for him? Does a snare spring up from the ground, when there is nothing to catch?

⁶Does the trumpet alarm sound in a city, without the people being afraid? Does disaster happen to a city, unless the Lord has done it?

⁷Surely the Lord God will do nothing, unless he reveals his secret to his servants the prophets.

⁸The lion has roared. Who will not fear? The Lord God has spoken. Who can but prophesy?

⁹Proclaim in the palaces at Ashdod, and in the palaces in the land of Egypt, and say, "Assemble yourselves on the mountains of Samaria, and see what unrest is in her, and what oppression is among them."

¹⁰"Indeed they do not know to do right," says the Lord, "Who hoard plunder and loot in their palaces."

¹¹Therefore thus says the Lord God: "An adversary will overrun the land; and he will pull down your strongholds, and your fortresses will be plundered."

¹²Thus says the Lord: "As the shepherd rescues out of the mouth of the lion two legs, or a piece of an ear, so shall the children of Israel be rescued who sit in Samaria on the corner of a couch, and on the silken cushions of a bed."

¹³"Listen, and testify against the house of Jacob," says the Lord God, the God of Hosts.

¹⁴"For in the day that I visit the transgressions of Israel on him, I will also visit the altars of Bethel; and the horns of the altar will be cut off, and fall to the ground.

¹⁵I will strike the winter house with the summer house; and the houses of ivory will perish, and the great houses will have an end," says the Lord.